Antonio Lagares Abeal

Born in Betanzos, Galicia, in 1986,  horn player Antonio Lagares Abeal began his musical training at the age of eleven at the Music School of his hometown  before continuing his studies at the Conservatory of La Conuna, where he obtained his Bachelor music diploma with honours, specialising in horn and chamber music. From 2009, he studied with Olivier Darbellay at the Hautes Ecoles de Musique in Lausanne and Luzerne where he obtained his Master of Arts in Music Performance specialising in orchestra and an Advanced Degree in Solo Performance.

Lagares has been a member of young groups such as the Galicia Youth Symphony Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE), the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Lucerne Academy. He has garnered a series of First Prizes (Riddes Musical Interpretation Competition, Young Spanish Horn Players Competition in Alba de Tormes, Sonidos del Arlanza chamber music competition in Burgos as a member of the Trio Opus 40).

He is a founding member of the Azahar Ensemble, winner (2nd Prize and Audience Prize, 1st Prize not awarded) in the Wind Quintet category of the prestigious ARD competition in Munich in 2014; hereafter, Azahar Ensemble embarked on an exciting international career that has led them to concertize in prestigious music venues including the Vienna Musikverein, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Tonhalle in Zurich, etc. as well as international festivals.

Alongside his activities as a chamber musician, he devotes himself with passion to the natural horn and contemporary music and regularly collaborates with the Tonhalle Orchester, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Philharmonia Zürich, the Münchener Kammerorchester, the Orchester de la Suisse Romande, the Camerata Bern, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and others.

Since 2021, he holds the position of horn principal at the Lausanne Sinfonietta  and teaches chamber music and horn at the Lucerne University of Music.